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The Need for the "Historical Jesus"

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The Need for the The Need for the "Historical Jesus" This page was generated automatically upon download from the Globethics.net Library. More information on Globethics.net see https://www.globethics.net. Data and content policy of Globethics.net Library repository see https:// repository.globethics.net/pages/policy Item Type Article Authors Evans, Craig A. Publisher Institute for Biblical Research Rights With permission of the license/copyright holder Download date 01/10/2021 11:59:18 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12424/161074 Bulletin for Biblical Research 4 (1994) 127-134. [© 1994 Institute for Biblical Research] The Need for the "Historical Jesus" A Response to Jacob Neusner's Review of Crossan and Meier CRAIG A. EVANS TRINITY WESTERN UNIVERSITY Jacob Neusner's review of John Dominic Crossan's The Historical Jesus and John P Meier's A Marginal Jew is insightful and helpful at many points. Although Neusner is not himself a Jesus scholar, his work in rab- binica qualifies him for meaningful participation in what is a technical and difficult field of study. Neusner rightly criticizes Crossan's uncritical use of apocryphal gospels, especially with respect to Morton Smith's Secret Gos- pel of Mark. But Neusner infers too much from this particular controversy; Jesus research is not in a state of chaos, nor has the discipline been unable to defend itself from hucksters and sensationalists. Neusner claims too much when he accuses Crossan and Meier of defending their work on "blatantly theological grounds." Both discuss the implications that their research has for Christian faith, but the work itself is not defended on theological grounds. It is concluded that historical Jesus research is credible and necessary. Key words: Jacob Neusner, John Dominic Crossan, John P Meier, His- torical Jesus, Morton Smith, Secret Gospel of Mark Anyone familiar with the history of the various phases in the quest for the historical Jesus will appreciate what Jacob Neusner has to say about the subject in general and about the recent books by Dom Cros- san and John Meier in particular. Neusner is not himself a Jesus scholar, but his quests for the historical Yohanan ben Zakkai and Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, near contemporaries of Jesus ben David, have confronted him with the same difficulties with which Jesus scholars grapple. Indeed, one is able to perceive in the three decades of Neus- ner's remarkably productive career a development of thinking that in a certain sense parallels some of the developments in the two-century history of the quest for the historical Jesus. His Life of Yohanan ben Zak- kai (SPB 6; Leiden: Brill, 1962) roughly approximates the assumptions and results characteristic of the better studies of the Old Quest. As 128 Bulletin for Biblical Research 4 with many of the Old Questers, Neusner began his study with more optimism than his sources could justify. (In his c.v. Neusner places this work under the heading, "The pre-critical stage.") Following its pub- lication, Neusner discovered form criticism, which is reflected in his second study of Yohanan (1970), the study of the Pharisees in rabbinic tradition (1971), and the study concerned with Eliezer (1973). (Neus- ner places the latter books in his c.v. under the heading, "The begin- ning of the critical enterprise.") From this work Neusner concluded that "in no way is biography possible on the foundations of the kind of evidence produced by the canon of the Judaism of the dual Torah" (from n. 8 of Neusner's review above). This conclusion is similar to that reached by Gospel form critics beginning in the 1920s and 1930s. Neusner's application of gospel form criticism to rabbinic studies marks a major advance, though not yet fully appreciated by rabbinic scholars. (Possibly illustrative of this point is that during a recent visit to the Mount Scopus campus of Hebrew University I was surprised to observe very few of Neusner's books on the library's shelves.) His re- cent work concerned with context runs parallel in certain ways to some of the more positive work that makes up the current "Third Quest." For New Testament scholars Neusner has emerged as a valu- able partner in dialogue. He knows Judaica as few do and at the same time understands and applies the critical methods of New Testament scholarship. One might not always agree with him, but interaction with him is always rewarding (see our recent exchange in JBL 112 [1993] 267-304). Neusner's review of the books by Crossan and Meier is percep- tive. Crossan writes with passion; Meier with precision. Crossan's work is marked with imagination and daring; Meier's with caution and careful documentation. As Neusner says, Crossan's book is "po- etic"; Meier's is "definitive." Before seeing Neusner's review, I had myself reviewed these books (Crossan's in TrinJ 13 [1992] 230-39; Meier's in TrinJ 14 [1993] 88-92) and found that Neusner and I are in essential agreement as to their respective strengths and weaknesses. Meier's assessment of the sources and the criteria of authenticity is sound, while his conclusions thus far are compelling. Of course, a comprehensive evaluation of Meier's work is not yet possible, since the second and third volumes have not yet appeared. (The book an- nounces that a second volume is forthcoming, but in recent conver- sation with Meier I have learned that the second volume has now grown into two). It will be in these volumes that we will be treated to the results of his investigation. Crossan's presentation of the historical Jesus is complete, so the results of his study can be evaluated. The great strength of his book is its contextualization. Reading it helps fill in the background EVANS: The Need for the "Historical Jesus" 129 against which any person of the first-century Mediterranean should be studied. However, I have two principal reservations, both of which are shared by Neusner. The first reservation has to do with Crossan's utilization of the apocryphal gospels, particularly the Se- cret Gospel of Mark, discovered at the Mar Saba monastery by Morton Smith in 1958 and published in 1973. Neusner describes it as the "forgery of the century," the production of which was motivated out of spite for Jesus and Christianity. As to Morton Smith's personality and personal feelings, I have no firsthand knowledge. Neusner knew Smith; I did not. So he certainly has a better understanding of the man. But still I find it hard to believe that anyone would devote years of painstaking labor to the production of a 450-page technical book that studies a writing that the author himself faked. I think that it is a virtual certainty that the fragments of Secret Mark cited in the Clementine letter are spurious and therefore of no value for seri- ous Jesus research, but the letter itself may very well be genuine. Several patristic scholars think so, and not all have a vested interest in Jesus research. Because Smith's book was taken seriously by some, among them Helmut Koester and Dom Crossan, Neusner believes that the quest for the historical Jesus has been seriously discredited: "Now the spec- tacle of the quest for the historical Jesus was exposed for all to see." "I dwell on a memorable academic scandal . to recall the moment at which, to outsiders to the entire enterprise, the very worth of the work came under suspicion. A field of learning that cannot defend it- self from forgery and fraud commands no claim on a continued place in the academy." On the contrary, I think the field has defended itself adequately in this case. Not only has Quentin Quesnell raised the ap- propriate objections relating to the lack of verification (CBQ 37 [1975] 48-67), but many others have concluded that the putative fragments of Secret Mark have nothing constructive to offer (e.g., H. Merkel, ZTK 71 [1974] 123-44; E. Bammel, JSNT 4 [1979] 69-76; F. Neirynck, ETL 55 [1979] 43-66). Outside of Crossan, Koester, and a few of Koester's students, not too many scholars take Secret Mark seriously. Since in all probability Smith did not forge the Clementine letter, there really is no scandal. Secret Mark is a second—not twentieth—century forgery. Its use or lack of use in the quest for the historical Jesus is a matter of source-critical judgment. The issue that Neusner has raised is, however, part of a much larger problem. Crossan's assessment of the apocryphal gospels is the primary weakness from which the whole work suffers. From the second-century Gospel of Peter Crossan believes that he can extract a primitive "Cross Gospel," the source on which the four canonical Gospels drew for their respective passion accounts. Despite Crossan's 130 Bulletin for Biblical Research 4 careful pruning, indications of Synoptic influence remain (cf., J. B. Green, ZNW 78 [1987] 293-301). In any case, is it really credible to regard a passion account that describes a talking cross and angels whose heads reach the heavens as the most original account? Simi- larly, Crossan argues that fragment §2 of the Gospel of the Hebrews pre- sents us with the "earliest text" of Jesus' baptism: "And it came to pass when the Lord was come up out of the water, the whole fount of the Holy Spirit descended upon him and rested on him and said to him: My son, in all the prophets was I waiting for thee that thou shouldest come and I might rest in thee. For thou art my rest; thou art my first- begotten Son that reignest for ever" (Crossan, Historical Jesus, 232-33).
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